Duplicity
by ViscountessKiera
Summary: In which Lantis and Hikaru elope, Umi and Eagle spend a night discussing it and Hikaru returns a favor in kind. Sister fic to royalbk's fic Dulcetly. E/U and some H/L of course.


AN: Oh looky, I'm alive! Huzzah. I come bearing fic. This was supposed to be a drabble that crossed over with _royalbk's_ story Dulcetly, (with her blessing of course) but I think I need to redefine my definition of 'drabble' haha. While you don't have to read Dulcetly to understand what's going on, I do recommend you do, it makes things much more fun that way. And before you ask, yes I am working on Ice and Snow, but it's gonna be awhile. For now enjoy this instead! Much love to all.

~VK

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_**Duplicity**__-_

_ 2. condition of being double: the state of being double or in a pair (formal)_

She was going to kill them.

She was absolutely going to kill them both.

How in the world did she miss it? How in the bloody hell did she miss the fact that one of her best friends and her dear cousin were in fact dating and in love, no scratch that, _married!_

She had to keep reminding herself about that last bit.

Umi glared down at her phone on the island counter of her kitchen for the third time that night, as if willing it to ring, to make her best friend call her and explain what the hell was going on and why she'd not felt so inclined to let her in on her…nuptial plans.

But no, the phone did not ring and she had to learn about their marriage via her mother, who had passed it along from her brother, Umi's uncle, family head and Lantis' father. Who had ever so _kindly_ wanted to know if she had know about her dear cousin's 'escapades' with his secretary. His words not hers.

Umi wanted to pull her hair out she was so annoyed and would have if she'd not just spent a good deal of the day before at the salon.

If only her boyfriend were here, he would know how to deal with this, he was Lantis' best friend after all.

But he wasn't.

He would have been here if his father hadn't called him the instant he'd retuned from his eight month tour in the med onboard the Stennis, and insisted upon his son coming home to visit and attend a campaign fundraiser.

Damn it, it was such a pain dating a Senator's son, one that happened to be a fighter pilot as well and spent half the year deployed in places he wasn't allowed to tell her about.

There should be some kind of law against not seeing your boyfriend for eight months, it was inhumane.

The subject of boyfriends brought her back to glaring at her phone, wondering again if she should call her friend or not. If she did she might not be able to refrain from reaching through the phone to throttle her.

Hikaru was momentarily spared verbal strangulation as Umi looked up at the sound of her apartment door unlocking.

Only one other person had a key.

Her heart skipped a beat and she refrained from running into the other room. She was not a lovesick teenager, a young woman does not conduct herself as such. She heard him sigh in that particular way of his and drop his bags in the entryway.

Butterflies started doing aerial maneuvers in her stomach.

'Oh screw it,' she thought and nearly sprinted into the other room, stopping in the doorway to just drink in the sight of him.

Eight months was entirely too long.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes…" she drawled in her best sultry tone, leaning suggestively against the doorframe.

He looked tired, golden eyes rimmed with red and was probably jet-lagged from the flight back to Tokyo, but he smiled at the sound of her voice. Quickly relieving himself of the rest of his gear he closed the distance between them, gathered her up into a bone crunching hug and simultaneously captured her mouth with his in a kiss that was almost equal parts relieved sigh as it was mummer of satisfaction.

Coming up for air a moment later he rested his forehead against hers and smiled again in that soft almost not noticeable way of his, his real smile, not the one he wore for the public and photo shoots with his father.

Umi pushed his bangs aside and playfully tapped the end of his nose with her pointer finger, "Missed you too, Eagle."

He didn't let go of her as he pulled back, one hand in her hair and one resting at the curve of her hip, fingers splayed wide and pressing into the fabric of the overly large 'U.S. Navy' t-shirt she was wearing as pajamas. In his haste to kiss her he'd partially pinned her against the doorframe, one of his strong thighs had slid between her legs, firmly locking their lower bodies together.

Not that she minded.

"I'm sorry I'm late, if I could have left that fundraiser any sooner I would have. Glad you're awake though." The hand on her hip gripped a little tighter.

Umi pouted and gave him a sullen look, "I don't see why I have to play second fiddle to your father."

"I'm sorry, I'll make it up to you," he nuzzled into her hair, "I promise." The last part was murmured in a husky breath behind her ear, sending an enticing shiver down her back.

"You'd better" her voice was filled with a playful warning as he came back up and kissed her again. The breathless contact of lips was interrupted a moment later by his stomach growling. She couldn't help but smile against his lips. "When did you last eat?" She doubted he'd eaten on the plane, he must have taken the mid-day flight out of New York and skipped lunch as well. Tokyo was thirteen hours ahead after all.

"Uhm…" a sheepish look through thick lashes was his only answer.

She took hold of him by one of his pants' belt loops and tugged him with her into the kitchen.

It took probably twice as long as it normally would to pour a bowl of cereal, mostly because he refused to untangle from her long enough to have use of both his hands. He eventually did let go of her to pull himself up onto a bar stool at the counter to finally eat.

"Can't have you running on empty later, now can we?" she raised a suggestive eyebrow at him and he grinned as he closed his lips over the spoon.

"So I miss anything since we talked last week?" he asked after swallowing.

Umi let a rough laugh escape her and rolled her eyes, absently picking up her phone, "Oh nothing much really, talked to Fuu, her and Ferio are having a nice time in Hong Kong. The idiot in the apartment across the way had some huge party the other night, kept me up for half the night before I went over and let him know how unhappy I was about that."

The look she leveled his way made Eagle wonder if perhaps he should make sure the man in question was still alive later and not pressing charges. He spooned another mouthful of cereal between his lips and made an agreeable sound.

"Oh and Hikaru and Lantis eloped," she added almost as an after thought, blowing a wisp of hair from her eyes nonchalantly.

Eagle nearly choked on his food, coughing several times and reaching for the carton of milk on the counter to wash it down and clear his throat. "They did what?" he managed to stammer out.

"They got married, without telling anyone, right after Lantis' father announced that ridiculous engagement he had planned out with that blabbing twit Primera and," at this she picked up a fork and leveled it at her boyfriend's forehead, "if you knew they were dating and didn't inform me you'll be sleeping on the couch for the next month, alone."

He went cross-eyed for a moment staring at the possible instrument of his undoing and subsequent banishment to the couch and chose his next words carefully. "I _suspected,_" he stressed,"that there was something going on between them, but no, I didn't know they were dating or that they were that serious."

He pushed the almost empty bowl in front of him aside and gave her a incredulous look, "Besides I've been at sea for eight months Umi, I've had even less contact with them that you. You really think I knew something you didn't?"

She put the fork back down, "I know, but I wanted to be sure and what do you mean by 'suspected'?"

Eagle sighed, "Well, last time I spoke to Lantis I just…had a feeling you know? He was acting a bit different…"

"Is this like some sort of guy thing?" Umi quipped resting her chin in her hands, "Knowing that sorta thing?"

Chuckling the blond reached across the counter and wound a few strands of her blue hair in his fingers, "Well generally if you've been friends with a guy that long you can tell when they've met 'the one' you know…" Here he paused for a moment smiling, fingers cupping her jaw, "Lantis made a similar comment to me before I shipped out this last time."

Umi turned a very becoming shade of red and did her best not to melt into a useless heap of blissful mush on the tile floor.

She shook her head, putting aside her own romantic notions for the moment, "We're getting off topic…" she eyed him but the corners of her mouth turn up in smile she could not force down, no matter how hard she tried.

"I'd still like to know why they left all of us out of the loop, seriously, you think you were surprised? Wait until I tell Fuu, she'll faint. I, for one, want some explanations out of our favorite redhead and my dear cousin," thinly veiled annoyance colored her voice.

Looking back down at her phone she let out a long huff, "I'm going to call her."

"Umi its two o'clock in the morning…" Eagle's words fell on deaf ears as she was already hitting the call button on her phone. "Umi…" she turned and shushed him with a hand over his mouth as she waited with her phone to her ear.

He raised one pale eyebrow at her and then nipped at her fingers in protest, making her jump a little bit in surprise and remove her hand. Whatever retort to that was forming in her throat died as the line picked up.

"Hi-ka-ru! Just the person I wanted to talk to." The bluennet drawled her best friends name in a dangerous tone; Eagle took a brief moment to reflect on who he should worry about more, annoyed Umi or poor Hikaru.

He couldn't make out exactly what Hikaru's reply was from his current position. Curiosity getting the better of him he stood going around the counter to wrap his arms around Umi's waist and press his cheek to hers in an effort to listen in. She attempted to bat him away, but quickly relented as she was caught up in the conversation.

"You're angry." Hikaru said simply, smart girl, being straightforward was the best road to take with Umi.

"Noooooooo...I'm not. I'm just disappointed, Hikaru. Two different notions. I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to be with my cousin and one of my best friends at their own wedding."

Despite the fact Hikaru could not see her Umi placed a disapproving hand on her hip. "Actually, no! Scratch that one! I'm disappointed because I didn't even know that my cousin and one of my best friends were getting hitched. Or that you were in love for that matter!"

There was a gentle sigh from the other end of the line.

"Sorry, Umi." Hikaru replied quietly, "We didn't think it would come to this. We planned to tell everyone, inform our families and settle any problems." At this point Hikaru's voice took on every bit the tone a bride to be would have sounded like. "Lantis wanted me to have anything that would make me happy; he didn't want to rush..."

"Hikaru…" Umi sounded more sympathetic at this; she'd sunk against Eagle in the intervening moment between her rant and Hikaru's explanation.

"But you know...his father and his newly announced engagement...Lantis thought that if anyone knew before everything was completed, we would...you know." Here Hikaru's voice broke a bit.

"Be separated?" Umi sighed herself, running her fingers through her hair. "I wouldn't have allowed such a thing, Karu. You know I wouldn't have - if I had only known."

"But I'm just a secretary..." A meek reply from the redhead.

Of all the ridiculous things for Hikaru to say, Umi rolled her eyes and gave a 'oh please' look at Eagle who nodded in agreement with her silent aside to him.

"A secretary?" Umi went on in a mocking tone, "Well what do you know...I never thought about that. I'm sorry. I forgot I should've been a snob!"

"Umi, that's not nice!" Hikaru words were disapproving but despite that she sounded relieved that Umi took her side so passionately, as if there were any other option in Umi's mind?

"Who cares? We...we're moving away from the real subject here! I still have to give you an earful about this. Do you even know what I've had to hear from my uncle these last few days? He keeps mumbling about his 'stupid son' every five minutes or so and if he's not beating down his 'reckless heir', he's rambling about meeting his new daughter-in-law like a madman. Says that the clan needs to meet the new addition...the clan Hikaru! Like we're the freaking Italian mafia or something!" Umi's voice had risen in pitch as she ranted and she had to take a deep breath to calm herself before she could continue, she ignored Eagle's low chuckle at her last comment.

"This is going to be big, Karu." Umi added feeling a bit relieved herself after ranting her own issues to her friend. "Everyone wants to meet you and this is not negotiable. In light of such, consider yourself forgiven on my part. You'll have enough issues with your husband's father soon enough."

Umi was certain Hikaru was turning a few shades paler on the other side of the phone.

"You're a sadist," was the girl's frank reply.

"I know," Umi cackled gleefully. "Eagle tells me that all the time. He's right too. Now...is my dearest cousin there by any chance? I want to have a word with him too..." She pulled at Eagle's ear as he mouthed a kiss along her jaw line, doing his best to try and distract her. He smiled against her neck at her reply to Hikaru.

He nipped at her fingers again and she flicked the back of his neck, giving him a warning glare to behave, and he withdrew, grinning and began to put away the cereal and load the dishwasher.

There was a brief pause on Hikaru's end, "He is now…" her tone matched Umi's earlier gleeful quip.

"Someone sounds happy..." Umi chimed. "Tell me, Karu...is he worth having to meet my family?"

"Oh for God's sake, Umi," Hikaru wined, sounding every bit over Umi's poor attempts to tease her. "Does your family plan to eat me for dinner? Don't say yes unless you've talked to the cook, please and let me worry about your inhuman relatives. If I married Lantis, I can cope with his father just fine. Wait...does his mother hate me too?"

At this Umi laughed out right and did her best to assure Hikaru that she was safe on that front.

Among her explanations she started to get the feeling that Hikaru was distracted as most of her replies were more along the lines of agreeable hums. Grinning, for she had a very good feeling about the exact reason for the redheads lack of attention to their conversation, she let their call end there, proclaiming that she had to go, for is she talked to Lantis now Eagle might feel left out and she wouldn't want him to feel _neglected _in any way.

Currently making coffee, Eagle scoffed at that last comment before she hung up.

"Neglected indeed," he took a sip of coffee eyeing her over the rim of his mug.

"Who wouldn't let go of me long enough to eat earlier?" She teased, sashaying over to him and placing her hand over his coffee to lower it out of the way.

He only grinned in response, "So…how's Hikaru holding up?"

"I think she'll be fine. My uncle wouldn't know a good thing if it slapped him, besides I'm sure Lantis' mother will love her. She liked you didn't she?" Umi filled her own mug with coffee now, it was delicate and white with a gold handle, a gift from Eagle when he'd been in Paris the year before.

"You sure them liking me didn't have anything to do with my father?" Eagle half joked, "Or that my family's pretty well off?"

Umi rolled her eyes, "Yes, I'm so dating you for your money."

It was Eagle's turn to laugh now, "You know, funny thing that, you mentioned your family being like the mafia to Hikaru earlier. Did you ever get around to telling them where my family got most of its money from originally?"

"No and I don't plan to! They do not need to know your great grandfather ran bootlegged whiskey across the Canadian border to Detroit and Chicago in the 30s! Don't you ever tell them either, my mother would have a fit. You know how much of a scandal that would be?"

"More of a scandal than the next C.E.O and heir apparent eloping with his secretary?" he inquired in a mocking disapproved tone.

"Do you really want to sleep on the couch that badly?"

Eagle set his mug down and gently pried hers away setting it aside. "Now we both know that's not going to happen." Her back was to the counter so he leaned over her, hands gripping the counter, trapping her between his arms. The blue tinted laughter in her eyes let him know she was teasing and the soft curve of her neck made him badly want to do what he'd been aching to do to her since he walked in the front door.

"Oh really? You sure about that?" Umi challenged and did her best not to let her serious expression slip, her fingers were already in his hair.

A hand on her bare thigh and a muffled 'umph' as his mouth covered hers was his only reply. His hand slid up and hers down, finding their way under his shirt, she dug her nails into his back.

It was a wonder they made it into the bedroom at all.

Sometime later in the wee hours of the early morning Umi lay on her stomach with her arms pillowed under her head, sighing in contentment as Eagle mouthed a kiss along the line of her back and over her shoulder.

She idly thought that if Hikaru was anywhere near as happy as she was right now then all of this really would work out just fine.

"What are you thinking about?" Eagle momentarily paused at his onslaught of her skin.

Looking back over her shoulder at him she smiled as he gazed back up at her through thick lashes, lips grazing the skin of her lower back.

Sighing once more she rolled over, her movements slow and unhurried, as she untangled one of her legs from the bed sheet. "I just hope they're happy you know, Lantis and Hikaru."

Pressing a kiss to where the rise of her hip gave way to the flat of her stomach Eagle gave a thoughtful mummer and rested his chin on her pelvis. "I'm sure they'll be fine, this is Hikaru and Lantis we're talking about. Like anything could really stop them if they want something."

Her breath came in a sharp gasp as he shifted and moved above her, his weight pressing her down into the mattress, every move slow and languid. "And look on the bright side, we may have missed out on their wedding, but at least you didn't have to wear a hideous bridesmaid dress."

Umi dissolved into laughter beneath him.

It took her a few minuets to find her voice again as she wiped tears from her eyes, "As if I would ever let Hikaru pick out ugly bridesmaid dresses. How do you feel about missing out on planning the bachelor party?"

Eagle paused for a moment, considering, "You think it's too late to talk them into actually having a proper wedding?"

Umi snorted and traced a finger along his collar bone, "Right, because I'm sure Lantis feels deprived of the stripper party you'd plan and half the male guests showing up for the wedding hung over."

"Nah, if I did that Ferio would be the only one who lost his clothes. May I remind you what happened at Fuu's birthday party last year?" He raised an eyebrow in query, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"Oh dear God no, please don't. He's never allowed to drink tequila ever again for a reason." She rolled her eyes, her nose scrunching at the memory, "That was more of Ferio than I ever wanted to see."

Eagle laughed again, moving down again to settle between her legs putting most of his weight on her pelvis so as not to crush her. "You know," he added as he traced a delicate pattern on the skin below her breasts, "Everyone seems so worried over Hikaru meeting your family that I think they forgot something just as important."

"Like what?" She hooked her legs around him, her heel digging into his lower back as he slid lower down her body.

"Like the small fact that Hikaru has a family too. A family with three very, very protective older brothers, all very skilled in kendo, who have no idea their baby sister was even dating someone, let alone that she went and got married without telling them." He pressed a kiss to her inner thigh, moving ever lower, his eyes laughing, "Frankly, I pity Lantis more."

Umi looked down at him, her mouth open in a tiny 'Oh' but she didn't speak until finally, "And Hikaru thinks _I'm_ a sadist?"

Eagle grinned at that and pressed his lips to her then, Umi dug her fingers into the sheets beneath her and didn't have the voice to say much of anything after that.

_Somewhere on the other side of town._

Hikaru was sitting at her kitchen table, watching Lantis make breakfast and eyed her phone curiously. She'd tried to call Umi back several times this morning, but to no avail, she hadn't picked up. Odd, Umi nearly always picked up, even early in the morning.

"I wonder if she forgot her phone somewhere again…she did say she wanted to talk to you last night." She looked up as he set a plate of eggs and bacon down in front of her.

Lantis gazed curiously at his wife for a moment, "Well, isn't Eagle due back from seeing his family? I know his tour is finished, he called me week before last and said he'd be back soon."

"I think so, she acted like he was there last night. I think I heard him in the background while we were taking, why would that matter?" Hikaru poked a fork into her eggs, a little on the runny side, just the way she liked them.

Lantis cleared his throat and smiled just a little bit, "Hikaru, they haven't seen each other in eight months. What do you think they're doing?"

Hikaru froze mid chew for a moment, confused briefly before it dawned on her, "Oh…OH…" she blushed and giggled. "Well I suppose I'll return the favor and not bother her while she's…busy" she hummed happily and ate her eggs as Lantis raised a questioning eyebrow at her, he seemed plainly curious as to what she meant, but was too polite to ask.

Hikaru just smiled.


End file.
